Did a recent Supreme Court decision give a license to firms to use “best practices” concepts to gut effective environmental standards?

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) in early April granted Entergy Nuclear an extended license for the Oyster Creek nuclear plant in New Jersey, the oldest operating nuke in the U.S. The plant will now be able to operate until 2029, unless the NRC at some point in the future grants a further license extension. Nuclear power advocate William Tucker, with tongue in cheek, advocated closing the plant and other elderly units in the Northeast, in a commentary in the National Review. Tucker’s comments are reprinted with permission.

Does customer satisfaction play a meaningful role in guiding utility operations? Many utilities think it does, as do many regulators. The market apparently doesn’t. Data suggest that the jury is out on the question, and the intuitive answer may not match the empirical evidence.

Because India has large domestic coal resources (and virtually no other fuel sources); a strong incentive to deploy cheaper, well-proven generation technology; and needs to rapidly increase the availability of electricity to its citizens, the country will likely continue to rely on coal-based power in the long run.

The Supreme Court backs restrictions on “once-through” cooling for new plants, while giving a pass to existing plants.

The Obama administration is giving mixed signals on global warming: claiming the right to regulate greenhouse gases but also expecting Congress to rewrite climate change regulations.

Bad bosses. We’ve all had them, we’ve all coped with them. They are a chronic management problem. But what can we do about them? A management guru offers some advice on how to deal with them and how to avoid becoming one.

Coal continues to demonstrate considerable financial muscle in the current economic downturn, despite anti-coal rhetoric and concerns about climate change.

After a week of long and heated arguments, the House Energy and Commerce Committee on Friday passed by a vote of 33 to 25 the American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009, a massive 946-page bill that would set up a cap-and-trade program and a federal renewable energy standard.
H.R. 2454 now heads to the House Ways and Means Committee, which will review the tax and trade implications of the bill. That committee could make more revisions to the bill.

U.S. power sales have plunged in the past six months on the back of an unprecedented demand decline that was caused by sharp contractions in the economy, and recovery is not anticipated until the 2010 to 2015 period, an analysis from Edinburgh-based Wood Mackenzie shows.